Cover Story
The Mayor’s Race: Shea vs. Leffingwell
On Monday, April 30, early voting begins in city of Austin municipal elections to elect the mayor and City Council places 2, 5, and 6. Early voting ends May 8; election day is Saturday, May 12. A few weeks ago, as the campaigns got rolling in earnest, Chronicle reporters Michael King and Amy Smith sat…
‘Dallas Is the Reason …’
It’s Texas Frightmare Weekend
The Good Music Club: Politics
Three live and tight performances from Austin’s Politics
Samantha in a Sari
Western women wearing Indian clothing is on the rise & so are the scoffs.
UT Regents Vote for Med School Plan
Vision for UT-Austin med school one step closer
I’m Totally Inviting You Into My House This Weekend
No, for real. Hey, c’mon, wipe your goddam feet
Report: WHP Planned Parenthood Ban Puts Patients in Jeopardy
GWU report questions HHSC analysis of ban
Links to the 8-Bit Artisan
A clickable companion to the Party Time! Hexcellent! story
Yassine Money Laundering Trial Set For Oct. 1
Judge denies bond as co-defendant skips bail
Kickstarter’s Dark Side
Don’t forget your due diligence
I Say Pecha, You Say Kucha
Everybody says Pecha Kucha this Thursday
CCA Considers Hank Skinner’s Death-Case DNA Appeal
Should never-before evidence be tested for DNA?
Restorative Powers
Scorsese nonprofit teams with Mondo & Alamo for film series
Otherworldly Roots
Punch Brothers push acoustic boundaries at ‘ACL’ taping
Who’s Laughing Now? Drafthouse Films ‘Klown’ Set for July Release
Drafthouse Films third release forthcoming
Scott Quitting Texas Education Agency
Controversial schools commissioner to leave July 2
Tuesday News Gay: May 1
Tuesday News Gay is back in a brand new video format
The New Yorker Gag Reel
A fantastic compendium of cover outtakes and retakes
Fifth Circuit Blocks WHP Ruling in Favor of Planned Parenthood
Single judge agrees to late-night stay
Cine Las Americas Announces Winners
‘Las Malas Intenciones’ awarded the narrative jury prize
Aztex Announce Five More Signings
A week from opening day, the Austin Aztex add to their roster
Greencards and Black
The Greencards, Austin Music Awards, and Louis Black
Music Mo’nday: April 30
A sound and vision gay collision
NBA Playoffs: Thoughts and Notes
Spurs the team to beat in the West
Mark Oldman a Hit at Food and Wine Festival
We interview Mark Oldman in the freezer!
Planned Parenthood Wins Preliminary Injunction
Court ruling bars state from excluding PP from WHP
What You Know About Them Texas Boys?
Former Texas high school football players shine in NFL Draft
Bedside Manner: In Memoriam
A few mournful words for books discarded
Moontower, Grackle, Swans, Soltanoff Trainwreck Betrayal
Not necessarily in that order, no
Vote!
Early voting in city elections begins today
Singing with the Ice King
‘Adventure Time’ creator Pendleton Ward and star Tom Kenny go Mondo
The Funny Doesn’t Have To Be Over
‘Inside Joke’ web series goes inside Moontower Comedy Festival
From the Vaults: ‘Bernie’ Kills
Linklater’s latest delivers his biggest opening weekend
Festival Highlights
A few of our favorite sips from the Austin Food and Wine Festival
The Smartest Kids in the Room
Hint: It may not be the AISD board of trustees
Black Helicopter Alert
Austin Energy surveying Saturday, so do not panic
On the Avenue
‘PlazaLife’ comes to Austin’s Great Street: Congress Avenue
Dziekuje Mr. Wrona
Q&A with Decapitated survivor ‘Vogg’ Kiełtyka
FCC: Local TV Affiliates to Post Political Buys
New ruling means Austin stations to put campaign data online
Local Gaming News-Bites
For those not following every game developer’s Twitter feed
Your Feets Too Big: Book Signing & Screening at the Lucky Lizard
Lyle Blackburn signs his new book on the Beast of Boggy Creek
Stand-up Comedy: The Tweet & Lowdown
Chris Cubas and Kath Barbadoro hashtag it out
Why Is This Woman Painting Betrayal Cakes?
And why directly on the wall of Salvage Vanguard?
The Good Music Club: Nano Whitman
Meet Nano Whitman via three TGMC clips
This Week’s Waste of Time
A few of the 1,400 games made for Ludum Dare
Maestro Allegedly Not Bitten by Tarantula
But he went gloriously spider-man apeshit on the piano
Rescued Pups Ready for Adoption
Uvalde Shelter rescues ready for families
Texas Two-Step
Richard Linklater and Matthew McConaughey on their true-crime comedy, ‘Bernie’
Experimental/Experiential
Film at Fusebox Festival
ART From the Ashes Reseeding With Creativity
A California nonprofit helps Bastrop recover by making art from fire-damaged materials
Then There’s This: Time Flies
Sullivan is ready to pass the torch … preferably not to a ‘gray-headed anglo’
After a Fashion
Stephen loves Bettie Naylor so �
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
California horticulturalist Luther Burbank invented the Russet Potato. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, people in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Finland pay on average less than $130 a year for cell phone service. Americans pay $635.85 a year. By some estimates, a third of all text messages in China today are spam.…
Planned Parenthood Has Its Day in Court
Is banning PP from the Women’s Health Program unconstitutional?
Quote of the Week
“People say the children are our future. The STAAR test seems to be preparing us for a future where rote memorization and bubbling in is all that matters.” – Kealing Middle School student Callier Creedle (pictured center) on high-stakes testing
Moontower Comedy & Oddity Festival Preview
Want more Moontower? Download an eight-page PDF of our preview content plus a full schedule for the festival!
Arts Review
This aerial adaptation of H.G. Wells is neat, and there’s nothing wrong with that
Planned Parenthood Affiliates To Merge
Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas will include 26 clinics from DFW to Austin
The Luv Doc: The Mind-Numbing Hell of Child-Oriented Places
Dear Luv Doc, My brother is coming to Austin at the end of the month with his wife and three kids (grade-school age). Any ideas on things we can do/places we can go? – Tom Tom, don’t fuck around taking them to Barton Springs or to ride the Zilker choo-choo. Barton Springs is so cold…
You Get That Laugh …
Wanda Sykes has conquered all of show biz, but stand-up, she just can’t quit you
Arts Review
Eight playwrights wrote 10-minute plays, and the audience lived happily ever after
Goodbye, Bettie
Activist and arts lover “encouraged us to be as good as we ought to be”
Damsels in Distress
Greta Gerwig stars in Whit Stillman’s new film that’s full of awkward artifice and – dance.
Where He Got That Pony
Steven Wright on his inspirations and stand-up origins
Arts Review
Seven artists journeyed to an Italian monastery to make prints, with sumptuous results
Happiness Has Got To Be Paid For
Tax troubles claim bookstore’s LLC license
Vicky Donor
Bollywood actor John Abraham steps into the role of producer for this Indian comedy about a prolific sperm donor.
Sausage Bang
Chris Cubas and Kath Barbadoro call the shots on Moontower’s all-guy and all-gal shows
Oops!
In his April 20 column, Mr. Smarty Pants said Robert Louis Stevenson was a Benzedrine addict. In fact, the author died on Dec. 3, 1894, 34 years before Smith, Kline & French marketed that drug. However, Stevenson allegedly wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde under the influence of cocaine. Mr. Smarty Pants regrets the error.…
Study: Dropout Rates for Blacks Higher in Charters
A new UT study shows black high school students in Texas are three times more likely to drop out from a charter system
The Five-Year Engagement
This romcom starring Emily Blunt and Jason Segel possesses something rare: rational, relatable adults.
Guaranteed gags
Matt Bearden on what jokes you’ll hear at Moontower and why he’s not all a-Twitter
Soccer Watch
Aztex sign new players, unveil unis, and more
New Courthouse? Let’s Form a Committee!
“There’s momentum for this project. … Don’t waste that.”
The Pirates!: Band of Misfits
Whether it’s Pirates or Wallace and Gromit or Chicken Run, Aardman’s stop-motion animation delivers the goods.
Dang Aloud
Dana Gould likes hiding the pill in the banana
ESPN Friday Night Fights
Four fighters put their undefeated records on the line
The Cisco Story: More Than Meets the Social Media Eye
Campaign for Cisco grows as questions arise about his owner
Bernie
Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey star in Richard Linklater’s latest film – an East Texas true-crime story with a comic touch.
Dr. Joker and Mr. ‘WTF’
Marc Maron on his double life as a comic and a podcast star
Day Trips
The Trinity River Audubon Center preserves a portion of what is the longest river entirely within Texas
APD Proposes Cost-Saving Measures
Magistration streamlining and in-car ticket payment would keep officers on the streets, too
Safe
The (Jason) Stathamization of action filmmaking continues with the star’s latest.
Civics 101
Friday 27 NPR’S STEVE INSKEEP speaks about diversity in Pakistan in a talk titled “Colour, Caste, or Creed.” 5-8pm. Jackson Geological Sciences Building (JGB 2.324), 471-3550. Free. darntz@austin.utexas.edu, www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/southasia/events/22601. BREAKING THE OLIGARCHY Gary Dorrien, Episcopal priest and professor at Columbia’s seminary, discusses ethical responses to economic crisis. 7pm. University United Methodist Church, 2409 Guadalupe, 478-9387.…
At It Again
Say Anything savant Max Bemis let goes of his alienation
Gay Place: Loss
Let someone save your life tonight, sugarbear �
One Slated, One Stayed
Rick Perry’s death tally notches another this week
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale
The most expensive film ever produced in Taiwan to date, Warriors of the Rainbow is a sweeping historical epic.
Headlines
› It’s a bulging agenda today at the last regular City Council meeting before the May 12 election, with two morning briefings, multiple zoning cases, and a considerable brace of scheduled public hearings. One on the foundering Green Water Treatment Plant redevelopment deal has been pulled until late May, but there’s plenty more for disputation…
Restaurant Review
Kerbey your enthusiasm
Playback
Austin Psych Fest and Old Settler’s Music Fest headliners Psychograss have more in common than you might think
Education Austin Keeps Lead Status
AISD board also adds advisory council to weigh in on employee matters
Goon
Off-color, bloody, and hilarious, Goon is the best hockey comedy since Slap Shot.
The Fun Platform
Helen Knode’s new murder mystery finds her leaving noir and stepping into the light
SFC Farmers’ Market East
Farm-fresh foods for East Austinites
Phases & Stages
Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball (Columbia) To the fat cats on Wall Street: Shill out that “Easy Money.” Meantime, Bruce Springsteen plays for the “Shackled and Drawn,” “the blacks, the Irish, Italians, the Germans, and the Jews.” The Jersey Boss’ 17th salvo stands as proof, a fiery hour written on behalf of all the saints and…
The Council Meeting From Purgatory
Bring a pillow and wear your hard hat
Delicacy
This French-language dramedy stars Audrey Tatou as a grieving widow who is trying to re-enter the flow of life.
Midnight Cowboy
No more ‘happy endings’ here, unless you count the Kalamazoo Julep (and we do)
Phases & Stages
Pink Floyd The Wall (Capitol) The Wall is Pink Floyd’s greatest contradiction. The 1979 double album signifies both the band’s most ambitious accomplishment – a tyrannical, two-act spectacle of profound proportions – and its most personal, detailing the English quartet’s fatal estrangement from its audience and each other. The latter feat serves as a focal…
Hightower Report: Workers’ Wages Lost to the Boss
A new study by Good Jobs First finds some major loopholes in withholding
Dhammu
Telugu action film.
Lee Leffingwell: ‘Think Long-Range’
The incumbent mayor defends his record
Food-o-File
Updates on local businesses and a good cause
Phases & Stages
Old Settler’s Music Festival Salt Lick Pavilion, Driftwood, April 20 From the frantic banjo of Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen, which carried out into the parking lot, to Amos Lee’s set-closing tribute to Levon Helm, Friday at the Old Settler’s Music Festival flew by with a divine array of American music. It may have been…
May 12 Municipal Election: The ‘Chronicle’ Endorsements
The Chronicle “editorial board” – in this instance, the News staff and the publisher – have considered the records, campaign statements, and policy positions of the City Council candidates and concurred on the candidate endorsements listed here. An endorsement does not necessarily mean we are all equally enthusiastic about a particular candidate or agree with…
Juan of the Dead
This zombie film from Cuba is a horror comedy that’s also filled with political satire.
Brigid Shea: ‘A Proven Leader’
Brigid Shea sits down for a Q&A on a wide range of city topics
Food Events
Wine, tequila, and whiskey, oh my
Phases & Stages
Old Settler’s Music Festival Salt Lick Pavilion, Driftwood, April 21 “OK, everybody get their banjos out,” instructed Tony Trischka midway through his banjo workshop Saturday afternoon at Old Settler’s Music Festival. Indoors at the Discovery stage, instructional lodge between the grounds’ two main gathering points, the 63-year-old master musician estimated he had been studying banjo…
Early Voting & Election Day
You may vote at any early voting location in the county in which you’re registered. On election day, you must vote in your precinct. For a list of precinct locations: 238-VOTE or www.traviscountyelections.org. Williamson County: www.wilco.org/elections or 943-1630. Hays County: www.co.hays.tx.us/elections or 393-7310. EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS Open Mon.-Sat., 8am-6pm, and Sun., noon-6pm, unless noted otherwise.…
Chimpanzee
The Planet Earth filmmakers turn their cameras on an orphaned chimp.
Clay Dafoe: ‘Citizens Communication Day’
Newcomer Dafoe jumps into the fray
Whit and Witticism
Nineties auteur Whit Stillman returns with ‘Damsels in Distress’
Fusebox Festival
Beaming down to Fusebox and charging it up are Captain Kirk and the King
Point Austin: The Governor’s Principles
The latest Perry eruption is a characteristically lamentable mash-up of political calculation and fiscal faux conservatism
Think Like a Man
This romantic comedy is based on comedian Steve Harvey’s book, “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man.”
